Figure in this songTengu
The story behind this song
The Buddha exiled them for pride. He gave them a thousand years on the mountain to learn humility.
They didn't learn humility. They learned to hide pride better.
The Tengu are the long-nosed, crow-headed mountain spirits of Japanese Buddhist folklore — once-arrogant priests sent into the wilderness to teach martial arts, calligraphy, and swordsmanship to those who climb the cypress paths to find them. The legend says they trained Yoshitsune, the great Heian warrior. The legend says every great swordsman in Japanese history has studied under them, knowingly or not. The legend says they teach without pride.
This song says otherwise.
An Elder Tengu speaks across four movements about a boy who has just arrived at the cypress gate. The boy is the son of a former student. His sons will climb the mountain too. The lesson is not given in a single generation. The Buddha was wrong about how long it would take.
Recorded in the lineage of late 1960s British acid folk — Pentangle, Comus, Trees — with shakuhachi and taiko threading through modal twelve-string guitar in DADGAD tuning. Western folk frame, Japanese soul.
A pilot song for Kami of the Dial — Japanese mythology through unexpected genres, one figure per song, one decade per song.
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